| | |  | Terrorism | Home » » The Malacca Conspiracy | | | | | | | Description: | | Set in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the United States, The Malacca Conspiracy is a bone-chilling tale of terrorism on the high seas, of political assassination and nuclear brinkmanship. And for Zack and Diane---your favorite JAG characters from Don Brown's popular Navy Justice Series---a story of hope for a longstanding romance that is now or never.When a dastardly plot is hatched in the Malaysian seaport of Malacca to attack civilian oil tankers at sea, to drive up the price of crude oil futures, and to assassinate the Indonesian president and use fat windfall profits to finance a nuclear attack against American cities, Navy JAG officers Zack Brewer and Diane Cocernian reunite in a sizzling race against the clock to foil the conspiracy before disaster strikes. But as President Mack Williams sends ships of the U.S. Seventh Fleet towards the Malacca Straights to reassert control over the sea lanes, will Navy JAG officers Zack Brewer and Diane Colcernian survive this dangerous and final high-stakes drama of life and death?You won't be able to put this thriller down until you find out. | | | Product Details: | | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 148 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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100 of 112 found the following review helpful:
 A Book For All OccasionsJul 04, 2010
By Elisabeth
It's the Fourth of July, and rather fitting that I've just turned the final page of Don Brown's new geopolitical thriller, The Malacca Conspiracy, as the book has a decidedly patriotic feel. With our nation's capital, Washington, DC, as one-quarter of the exotic, landscape quartet along with the far-flung destinations of Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, Mr. Brown has the reader traveling the globe without ever having to leave the comfort of her bedroom slippers.
And true to form, the rockets glare and the fireworks explode off each page of this novel leaving me satiated, but still wanting more. From reading all five of Mr. Brown's novels, I have discovered that he is the master of the plot, moving the story along seamlessly with grace and detail, and the skill of the masters of his time. He had me chomping at the bit to know what was going to happen next.
The book has something for everyone. With a flair for the dramatic and penchant for sniffing out percolating controversy, Don Brown keeps the reader on the edge of his seat. Gentleman readers will love the high-stakes action and the geopolitical implications. Although the author has a knack for seeing the future having predicted the 2008 shooting war between Russia and Georgia in his novel, Black Sea Affair, I hope his crystal ball is on the fritz this time around, and our country is safe from the any of his fictional fireworks.
As for the ladies, don't be fooled by political and military undertones. The author has brought back two popular characters from his first three books in The Navy Justice Series, Zack Brewer and Diane Colcernian, and the sexual tension between the two sizzles like the burgers and dogs on your grill. Happy 4th and enjoy this and all four other Don Brown novels.
21 of 26 found the following review helpful:
A great book!Jul 11, 2010
By Kathy Eichenbrenner
Don Brown's 5th book in the Navy Justice series is the best yet! A complex plot involving terrorism in the Malaccan Strait, combined with several sub-plots (including the ongoing romance between Zack and Dianne), makes for a thrilling page turner. You won't want to miss it!
9 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Another success for Don BrownFeb 06, 2011
By Rachel Schara
As someone who loves reading Christian fiction, I also have a huge affinity for mystery. Don Brown's whole Navy Justice series has been fantastic! I was very excited when I found out the next link in the series had been added. The Malacca Conspiracy surpassed my expectations. While the huge cast of characters could be a bit confusing at times, the reader could still easily keep reading and get swallowed up by the action. This reader hopes that there is more to come!
56 of 75 found the following review helpful:
 Reads like a script to a made-for-TV movieJul 25, 2010
By Tamahome Jenkins
"TJ aka S"
I downloaded this book because it was free. I figured that at most it would cost me the time that I spent reading it. After getting about 2/3 of the way through, I couldn't take it anymore and I realized my time was more valuable than this book. This book is awful, and I felt like I was reading the script to a made for TV movie. The premise of the book is excellent (a secret cabal wants to control the shipping lanes between the Indian and Pacific Oceans by taking over the government of Indonesia). However, the execution is lacking.
First of all, this is an extremely black and white, good Christian guys vs. bad Muslim guys book (and I do mean guys - more on that later). There are no subtle nuances. If a character prefers the crescent to the cross, he's a bad guy. All of the good guys quote Bible verses at some point, but the bad guys never reference the Qur'an nor do they ever actually practice their religion. In fact, they only ever mention their religion when they talk about destroying the good guys (the typical "praise Allah" stuff). It's almost as if the author thinks Islam is a cult or secret society, as opposed to the 2nd largest religion in the world. I could live with that if it wasn't for...
The contrived and utterly ridiculous subplots. For example, the main character, who is a middle-aged lawyer in the Navy, wants to go on a mission with a Navy SEAL team because he's worried about his girlfriend. Wow, really? I think I saw that on an episode of JAG 15 years ago. Then there's the good girl who saw the bad guys' plans and spends the rest of the book worried for her life. Like I said, made for TV movie. I might be able to live with *this* if it wasn't for the fact that...
The characters are all pretty flat. The good guys are all macho and Christian and the ladies are all damsels in distress, including the one (and only) female military officer. As for the bad guys, there's no subtlety involved. Having the bad guys club baby seals while making fun of the Special Olympics would be more subtle than the lengths this author goes to in making sure that you know the bad guys are bad. On top of that, the author seems to introduce certain characters just so that he can kill them a few pages after they're introduced. For example, there's this character who hasn't seen his wife in over a year, yet somehow has a three week old son, the extra-marital implications of which are not examined. The reader is just supposed to feel bad that this guy hasn't seen his wife or met "his" son. I don't think the author was implying anything, though, because the strange timing doesn't even come up, and his superior officer actually congratulates him on his new son. But it doesn't matter because he dies at the end of the chapter anyway (don't worry, I didn't spoil anything ;). There are a bunch of these characters who show up in the book that only serve as martyrs to make the bad guys appear truly evil, and don't actually advance the plot.
Finally, there are parts that are just incredibly inaccurate, and it's obvious that the author is using most readers' ignorance to help the plot. For example, there's an argument between the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense (of course), one of whom is actually worried about Iran and North Korea launching military strikes from their embassies in Washington, D.C. That's interesting considering neither country has formal diplomatic relations with the U.S. and therefore no embassies in the U.S. Also, there's a part where a bad guy proclaims his country as the first Muslim nuclear power (and of course promises to wipeout a certain Middle Eastern country) even though he had just visited Pakistan a chapter earlier! This book is littered with these inaccuracies, and this is the main reason why I put the book down before I got to the end.
I really wanted to like this book because I love political thrillers, but this book was so predictable I found myself reading on just to see if I was guessing the next plot twist correctly. There was really nothing thrilling about it. If you enjoy reading books that are full of sound bites and buzzwords, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, save your money and your time and stay away from this steaming pile.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
 From Nuclear Bombs to Shark AttacksMar 22, 2011
By Deborah
"Books, Movies and Chinese Food"
I will admit that I was drawn to this novel purely because of the title. Malacca is in Malaysia where my mother is from. Therefore I thought this book would have more of the story taking place in Malaysia. Alas, that was not meant to be. However, what I did find instead was a good military suspense novel. I haven't read any of Brown's other books in the Navy Justice series (which I think this book is either a part of or loosely tied to) but I didn't feel lost at all while reading.
The story contains very realistic situations involving terrorists attacks, nuclear bombs and religious extremists. It's all too familiar with what is going on in the news today. The terrorists are shown as extremists who seem to be very violent and power hungry. I personally didn't feel that Brown is attacking Islam or Muslims in the story. There's a lot of action and violence in the story though nothing too graphic. We get everything from nuclear bombs to shark attacks in the book. There was a scene which I found to be very interesting as one of the suicide bomber pilots was flying right over the town i live in (the joys of living in the DC metro area). I did find one jarring mistake with the wrong number of one of the major interstates in the book (it's Interstate 495 and not 485 as it's typed in the book). This wouldn't normally be a problem but since I drive on it every day AND it's one of the major interstates in this area, it's a glaring mistake. This is especially noticeable when everything else about the area seems to be correct.
There were times when I did feel that the president and other government members seemed a little too publicly Christian-like than they normally would be in real life. I'm not saying that there aren't top ranking public officials who aren't Christians but it seemed like everyone up there was and everyone was ok with publicly talking about their faith. Other than this it's a fast paced action filled book. I think that most people will enjoy reading stories that are straight from the headlines. It's good to read about a story about what could happen as opposed to reading about idealized lifestyles all the time.
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